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The Dresden Files => DFRPG => Topic started by: JeffVandenberg on March 26, 2013, 03:55:03 PM
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I'm starting to organize for an online chat oriented DF RPG game supporting play at any time. Right now I'm working on technical/development related tasks as me and the other owner are tossing around ideas for what the game should look like. I'm turning to the experienced players here to see what thoughts, comments, or concerns there would be for creating such a game.
Cheers,
Jeff
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OK Jeff first find the pcs then brainstorm setting with them
add your own conflict related to the setting or players
and let things develop naturally
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That sounds sort of difficult. I would be interested to see how you pull it off. It seems like you are trying to mix PBP and IRL gaming.
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try a forum chat i am more pen and paper than typing stuff sorry if my help is not that helpful :-X
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I've created WoD oriented chat based games before, and am wanting to try something more fun. The character sheet alone makes me happier. :) The game will have a (java or flash based) chat component, and I am looking at a probable game size of 100 characters, at least that's my initial target. I was just curious if there was any other attempts like this that people were aware of.
Right now, I'm thinking that it's going to be an 'Alt-Verse' to avoid some of the headaches of dealing with the (delightful to read) established continuity.
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We have run our game in a chatroom for a couple years. We use one that archives posts so we have a game record and use another for rolls and general chat. We can see the rolls which are posted to the game room. It is dependent on a pre-set game time, however. I suppose we could run it real time, and just keep the room open all the time, but it really is hard to play without some OOC chat and discussion as we go along.
There is another site roll20: http://roll20.net which has a few chat/skype options and supports different game systems. I'm not sure about notifications or mobile apps but you can upload maps, rooms, etc. that everyone can see and use. Log in, play the game, and roll all in the same room and it can be open all the time.
You can use this forum to post a game, and set up notifications so you can be alerted every time someone posts a reply in the game thread, but you'd have to use an external roller which makes it a bit cumbersome if you want a play at anytime sort of thing.
Were you thinking of something more instant-play like?
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Hi, Jeff! *waves*
I'm new to the DFRPG myself, but most of my concerns would be the same ones you'd have in any chat environment. The biggest concern I have for any chat game is continuity and communication between GMs. If you're going to have multiple GMs running plots at the same time, it'll be really important for all of them to communicate what the potential consequences of those plots are so they don't step on each others' toes.
Specific to the DFRPG, how would you handle milestones? Chat sites for other systems tend to hand out a certain amount of XP each week, but advancement in the DFRPG is based on story milestones. And, on a chat RPG like the one you're describing, not every character is going to experience stories at the same rate - some might never even get into a GMed scene at all!
My recommendation would be to make significant and major milestones chatwide - raise the skill and refresh levels for the entire chat at once, including new characters created after the milestones. Maybe make them coincide with big metaplot events. Especially in a system like the DFRPG, where a single skill point or point of refresh makes a huge difference, I think the game works better if all the PCs are on equal footing.
Also, you're going to want to have a clear policy about how magic items and crafting works. I'm not actually familiar with these rules, but the discussions I've seen here give me the impression there's a lot of room for different interpretations of the RAW.
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I think one of the bigger problems is going to be people wanting custom stuff. In most games this isn't too much of a problem, but DFRPG encourages custom stunts and powers. You should have a fairly level head on your mods, mechanics wise, so they can spot any issues that might arise from such things fairly easily.
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Replying vaguely in order:
@Fyrchick
I'm thinking more instant play. It would have some similarities to roll20, but instead of being a myriad of distinct games, it would be a shared story in a single world. There would be scheduled scenes, but also plenty of opportunities for more unguided play where there won't be a GM involved.
@OwleIsohos
I've got 'Story Management' as a feature to build on the site, so that GMs can see what is going on and what characters are involved with which stories.
Milestones is an interesting question. I've had some discussions about it with the other person I'm planning this out with. There are a lot of options on the table in terms of fixed progression vs story oriented progression.
As I dig into things more, magic items and crafting prove that they are the traditional bane of my gaming existence.
@KoffeyKid
Custom will be managed. I will maintain a list of existing powers and what is custom.
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'lo folks, I'm the other founder of this project along with Jeff.
OwleIsohos: Hi, I know we met on Jeff's old World of Darkness site! I hope you're well.
To everyone else, hello, I'm a long time reader of the books, new to actually playing the RPG. Looking forward to discussing stuff with you all.
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So let me make sure I understand this. You're proposing to develop a chat site with a world set in the Dresden Files universe. You then want to be able to have up to 100 characters in that world. Those characters would be able to enter any number of ongoing campaigns run by (possibly independent) GMs.
Is that right?
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Hi Mij,
We will build a team of GMs and Admins, we'll put together a DF-flavoured world to play in.
Then people can join, make characters. Usually on a chat-based game, a lot of the play is in the interaction between player characters, but there are also regular storylines and scenes run by GMs.
That's the model, pretty much. We wouldn't really have independent GMs so much, but anyone who wanted to run stories would be welcome. The bulk of stories would be run by the staff GMs, but in a game like this we would usually have an option for Player Run Scenes/Stories/Plots, that someone could start running with a minimal barrier to entry.
One of the reasons we like the D F rules aside from the amazing backstory and world, is that they can be very collaborative, we're hoping to see some really interesting stuff emerge from that with a lot of player characters interacting with each other.
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This sounds rather interesting actually.
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So let me make sure I understand this. You're proposing to develop a chat site with a world set in the Dresden Files universe. You then want to be able to have up to 100 characters in that world. Those characters would be able to enter any number of ongoing campaigns run by (possibly independent) GMs.
Is that right?
Close, except that it's not all independent GMs. There is a requirement for some measure of coordination between the GM staff.
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@OwleIsohos
I've got 'Story Management' as a feature to build on the site, so that GMs can see what is going on and what characters are involved with which stories.
Awesome!
Conor: Hi! It's great to see you again! I hope you're doing well yourself. :)
This sounds rather interesting actually.
I played on Jeff's World of Darkness site for over a year, which used much the same model as he and Conor are describing here. It was a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to seeing such a thing using the DFRPG system.
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Awesome!
Stories have to be treated as a high level entity in the game.
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Have got site up with a basic free chat service. I will start to move over some of the dev code, put up a forum, and start to do some of the other work to help get the game organized.
http://www.gamingsandbox.com/ (http://www.gamingsandbox.com/)
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Hey folks,
as Jeff said there's a chat there now, people are in there talking up some character options and so on, if anyone from here would like to take a look they'd be very welcome. A lot of the people in the chat are coming from a White Wolf NWoD gaming background, veterans of DF RPG from here would be a very helpful presence!
I'm on there a lot, so it'd be nice to meet you folks and say hi too.
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I just tried to check it out on an iPhone and it me to get bent.
"The mobile edition module is not available with this account."
Does this refer to your site as the acct without mobile support or just mean I need to create an acct to check it out?
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I just tried to check it out on an iPhone and it me to get bent.
"The mobile edition module is not available with this account."
Does this refer to your site as the acct without mobile support or just mean I need to create an acct to check it out?
Hiya Polkaneverdies,
That message is most likely because we're using a temporary chat program until we decide on which platform we want to use on a more permanent basis.
Sorry about that, in a little while we'll sort out a chat with mobile support.
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How would conflicts work? Time management wise? Is there a cut-off limit for the number of people for "scheduled" game? Would it be akin to fate core rules for mobs or just 10-15 people battles?
It sounds pretty interesting but just trying to get a feel for how this would work.
Also, how will availability work? First come, first serve? I mean this in terms of 1 WK, SK, 3 Bearers of he swords
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We haven't even really begun to put together a setting, but a few words I came up with the other day while chatting with players:
New York City, modern day. Different pantheons, supernatural groups, churches, cults, and organizations disagree on whether the world is headed towards Ragnarok, The Rapture or some kind of dawn of enlightenment. Hippies are hoping for another Age of Aquarious, White Council thinks a threat is coming that will either end all or most of life, or at the very least redefine reality. Others think it's foolishness just like all the other end of the world scenarios and some are just looking to profit or benefit from these highly charged times.
As a result, the training wheels are off somewhat. There are more knights of the cross than ever. There are no longer one winter and one summer knight, the fae have several lords and ladies potent enough to have their own knight.
And everybody who is anybody is coming to New York.
(Astralblade: I posted this partly in answer to your query, there would still be limited positions for knights etc but we're opening it up a little to try to accommodate an online setting.)
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http://www.gamingsandbox.com/welcome/sheet
a demo of the pending character creation sheet. It's mostly pretty at this point and missing several details.
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How would conflicts work? Time management wise? Is there a cut-off limit for the number of people for "scheduled" game? Would it be akin to fate core rules for mobs or just 10-15 people battles?
It sounds pretty interesting but just trying to get a feel for how this would work.
Also, how will availability work? First come, first serve? I mean this in terms of 1 WK, SK, 3 Bearers of he swords
We're looking more at Champions of God being a more "open" concept, so there's not just a limit of 3. We are looking at as much of a mix of different factions as possible, but at the same time, we want to be accommodating on what people want to play. Also, there is no set "meeting" time, its a 24/7 type chat. Specific scenes/sessions may be set up among players and a GM for the purpose of running it, but over all you may play when you want, how you want, and what you want.
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I'm starting to organize for an online chat oriented DF RPG game supporting play at any time. Right now I'm working on technical/development related tasks as me and the other owner are tossing around ideas for what the game should look like. I'm turning to the experienced players here to see what thoughts, comments, or concerns there would be for creating such a game.
Cheers,
Jeff
ever hear of roll 20 and google hangouts? I'm curious how it would work
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ever hear of roll 20 and google hangouts? I'm curious how it would work
A chat game is an always-on setting. In that way it's not unlike a mmorpg, only the emphasis is squarely on roleplaying rather than raids etc. You can log in your character at any time, if there's other players online you can go to an In Character location with them and do scenes, whether it's a coffee shop conversation or a bar fight or one of you going to the other's office to hire them for something, anything you might do in-game.
GMs are around too, but not twenty four hours a day. This means a chat game is quite collaborative between players, a lot of plot emerging from pc interaction. Then there are regular scenes, run by the GMs that you can get your character involved in, usually hooking you into a storyline. You can be part of multiple storylines.
The game functions in realtime, so if your character has a wound that takes a week to heal, it takes a week of real time.
Chat games have been around a good while, with IRC early (and still going) games, through to chatroom stuff on the White Wolf site for a few years, then when that closed down a slew of New World of Darkness sites opened up. This would be the first large-scale chat game of Dresden Files, so I'm really excited to see it take shape.
I hope that gives some indication fantazero, but if any of it could do with a bit of clarification or expansion please let me know.
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Site registration seems to be down. Makes it hard to look at stuff or post.
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Hey, vonpenguin! The site's still a work in progress - registration hasn't been coded yet, and no one is able to post anything for the time being. You can check out a preview of the forums, character sheet, and dice roller here: http://ragnarok.gamingsandbox.com/
The chat is up and running, and you don't need to register to pop on to it. There aren't many people in there since the game hasn't launched yet, so this thread is probably the best place to ask any questions until the game's own forum is up and running.
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I'm not sure how helpful this is but, roll20 is extremely good for online Table Top gaming. It's completely free, and it has a virtual "table" that you can set maps/images on, move tokens, etc. It has a chat system the includes virtual dice (/roll 4df for Fate/Fudge dice), records, a place to keep most basic character stuff (skills, aspects, items) where everyone can see them, as well as cameras/voices if you want two separate means of communication (one IC and one OOC).
I don't have much experience with it, a friend says it's really good, though the one disadvantage is that there aren't a lot of urban/modern maps for the site (which makes sense since most table tops aren't urban), but since The Dresden Files is pretty "crunch" light that's not as much of a hindrance as it could be.
EDIT: Looking back, this actually wasn't what you where asking for at all. I misunderstood it appears...
Well, it's still a good set of features that a might be useful for a site your looking at developing.
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Looks like fun. My main thoughts:
1) GM interaction is key, but I doubt I need to tell you this. I've seen games fall apart because of this though.
2) I'd keep character progression separate. There's no balance reason I can see for splitting up groups due to differing refresh levels - even a 6 refresh character can be useful to a 12 refresh character - the GM just needs to adjust the enemies a little. You might want to add some basic rules to help split up these extremes, but it helps immersion if characters are what you make them and don't just get power.
3) Have hard and fast documented stunts and powers, as well as templates. Don't let players just pile on any powers they like without restriction. Be flexible, but don't make it an exercise in power-gaming.
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Hey folks,
Thanks for all your posts so far, cold_breaker, thanks for the thoughts, sounds like you're speaking from a lot of experience.
Our forums are now up, you can register and post there if you're interested in getting involved!
We're interested in finding some GMs to volunteer on the site, if that sounds like your cup of tea you could email me or post here or whatever you like.
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Our group use to use AIM chat but then we found www.Roll20.net and its been working pretty well for us. I'm not the DM but he says the maps are easy to upload, and the tokens are easy to manipulate.
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Thanks everyone who's recommending roll20, it seems like a great site.
JeffV is building everything we need though, what we're really interested in is inviting players and GMs to come over and be part of the game.
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I might be interested in joining as a player- since it looks like my current Roll20 game is destined for disbandment.
How exactly would this work, in terms of specifics?
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Check this out! :)
http://ragnarok.gamingsandbox.com/dice -- A dice roller. It's a mock up, but it's pretty. I'm especially proud of it since it was an idea that I pitched to the site developer.
http://www.ragnarok.gamingsandbox.com/forum/ -- The forums are up and running. You can register and then post questions, comments, ideas etc. Everyone's brainstorming a little bit of everything. I think if you look at the forums, you'll get a better idea of how the game's going to work. Right now we're working on City Creation.
http://www.ragnarok.gamingsandbox.com/welcome/sheet -- Another mock up, this time of the character sheet. This isn't functional, it's just there to give folks an idea of what's in store.
I hope people who are interested in playing Dresden Files RPG will come check us out, be intrigued, possibly impressed, by what they see, and join the game! :)
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Woo-hoo! Heading towards Ragnarok (to check things out)!
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Woo-hoo! Heading towards Ragnarok (to check things out)!
Hey 4thWorlder, thanks for your contributions already, I love your NYC locations post. Appreciate you coming over!
LMage, I'm sorry I missed your post at the time, I hope Troy's response was helpful.
If you want to ask any questions about how joining the game works feel free to drop me an email to conor at gamingsandbox dot com or click the email link here, or drop by the site and jump on the forums.
We haven't got to the point where we're putting any characters in play yet but people are on the forums talking out character ideas, putting together some hooks etc.
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Yes, please, anyone interested in GMing, please let Conor, Troy, Jeff, or I know or go here for the application:
http://www.ragnarok.gamingsandbox.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=46
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are you all still looking for people/ if not can i read in on the progress thus far?
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WE are looking for Players and GMs both! Follow the link in Jeff, Conor, or Troy or my signatures to the website.
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are you all still looking for people/ if not can i read in on the progress thus far?
Hey Lowellwashere, I'll echo what Patch said and say you're very welcome to come over and get involved, either as player or by applying to GM!
Either way, look forward to seeing you over there, thanks for asking about it.